Friday, February 12, 2016

2016 January and February

Can you believe it? The Graubner's have been home since we came home New Year's Day. It has been great, and we've been able to get some projects done.

I like decorating my home with snowmen for January and February. I even did it when we lived in Sunny California.

Erin got these placemats for us several years ago. I love them

Cute salt and pepper shakers we keep on the bar.

Cheryl made the snowman mantle cover several years ago also. Laurie got us the picture over the fireplace for Christmas

Two years ago when Erin and family moved to Indiana, they stayed with us for Christmas. Clayton made this snowman in CA and he gave it to me.

Erin gave me this picture this year for my birthday.

Winter is also the time I like to do puzzles. I have a table set upstairs and usually have a puzzle going.

This year we are getting the snow. There have been a few snow days. It is pretty, but usually doesn't last more than a couple of days. We never get that slushy dirty snow that we used to get in Michigan.

I even made snow cream one night. I don't ever remember doing that as a kid.

Another project I worked on is a couple of quilts that I pieced together. I had bought fabric in Alaska but hadn't used it yet. This one I will hang up in my living room. Laurie took it home to the quilters.

I also did a crumb quilt. You take your scraps and sew them together to make your blocks. I had fabric from Alaska that was too small to work with, so I made a crumb quilts throw.

This is what some of the individual squares look like.

I think I"m gong to free motion quilt this quilt. It should be fun.

While I was doing this sewing, I decided to clean out my fabrics. The cupboard was getting full and fabric was just crammed in. It took me a couple of days, but I got it done.

I also had some other fabric I got in Alaska, but had never used. I made a table runner. I did free motion quilt this piece. I really like it.

Laurie came over a week with her three youngest kids. She home schools them, so could still do school with them. She had some projects to do with Larry while she was here. We had a good time playing games in the evening, also.

Our women's ministry had a "Paint Your Canvas" one night. I decided to take the class. It was fun, but I think I would have enjoyed a different subject.

It was a learning experience.

Howard and I work with International Friends at our church every Tuesday morning. Most of these ladies are from Japan. Their husbands work at the Nissan plant here in Smyrna. We teach English to them, have a social time, have a Bible lesson, and then an activity. A couple of weeks ago I taught them how to crochet. I had some friends at church help me, too.

They did a very good job. We made pot holders.

Last time Howard had a cooking class. He did a pecan pie and then we did biscuits and sausage gravy. The girls wanted us to do something southern that they would not normally do in Japan.

Our church houses homeless women and children twice a month. Howard and I cooked the dinner the last 3 nights.

Laurie and the kids helped the first night when they were here.

We had meat loaf, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, bread and salad. We served a chocolate wacky cake for dessert.

Last week, was a cold snowy night. We made stew, cole slaw, bread, and a strawberry crisp. The ladies always appreciate a home cooked meal. There are other people that cook breakfast for them and fix sack lunches for them to take.

This has been a busy month for Howard. Larry worked with him on making a Windsor Rocking chair.

The seat is first fashioned from a slab of wood. It is hard work to carve it all out.

Howard is shaving down the spokes for his chair.

Fitting in the legs

Starting to look more like a chair. Howard's is on his right.

Carving out the legs where the rockers will be.

Larry and Howard

He has put in the spokes in the back. Now he will have to put the back piece on.

Larry was taking a class and building a new work bench. Howard went up one day with him and finished up the chair. Here he has put the rockers on, and is sanding them so that they will be flush with the floor since the legs are splayed outward. That took about an hour and a half of sanding.

The finished chair. (Note: I'm the same height as my son--when I'm standing on something.)

Now Ann's work starts. She painted it with with three coats of milk paint and then three coats of polyurethane.

It is now in our house!!

It is a very comfortable chair.

We are planning on going up to Alaska for the first two weeks of March, to cook for GraceWorks. They have teams coming up to work at the Iditarod 2016!!